Fire on the Horizon
by MissEmris
Summary: What happens while Lorcan and Grace are travelling on the Nocturne? Set after Tide of Terror. Extract: "But then her eye caught sight of something on the horizon, and in a split second, everything seemed very, very wrong." Grace & Lorcan. Please review xx
1. Stars

Grace Tempest gazed out onto the expansive stretch of ocean laid out before her, the stars in the sky creating gentle night lights above, and the moon reflecting on the water, just a blurred patch of silver. The world felt serene, peaceful, and Grace's mouth turned up into a quiet smile of ecstatic happiness.

"Grace." A gentle voice came from behind her. An Irish accented voice.

Grace turned around, reluctant to tear herself away from the perfect view, but eager to see Lorcan also. "Hello, Lorcan." She greeted him.

He walked directly toward her, not stumbling as he had done so many times in past days. His eyes were still obscured behind a white blindfold, and Grace liked to imagine that beneath, there were only Lorcan's deep, mesmerizing blue eyes, instead of the ruined mess which she had sighted just a week ago. And that's what she imagined now, to put her mind out of the torturous feeling of guilt for Lorcan.

"Are the stars out?" He asked her, after they had stood there in peaceful silence for a few seconds.

"Yes." replied Grace, gazing back up at the constellations dotting the sky, almost like shining splatters of paint. "They're lovely."

"Could you describe them to me?" His voice was a silky whisper.

Oh, how she wished Lorcan could see the beautiful sky that night! "Well," She began, "They all shine out like... like holes in the sky, I suppose. There are so many of them, as if someone had maybe splattered silvery paint onto a black sheet, and there are also red ones and blue, and..." She stopped, realizing that if she carried on, she may stop breathing because she wouldn't be able to get the description out fast enough.

"They sound beautiful." Lorcan told her, and the corners of his mouth turned up into a smile. "I only wish I could look at them with you."

"It wouldn't have hurt your eyes?"

"Only sunlight and fire harms my eyes, Grace."

At this Grace's memories awoke: Lorcan with his eyes still intact and mesmerizing, Lorcan fighting to protect her in the morning sunlight, and then the state of his eyes as a result.... she squirmed with guilt for what she had done to him unintentionally. For what was all _her_ fault.

"But Mosh Zu Kamal will help me, Grace, I promise." He said, awaking her from her mind's torture.

Suddenly Grace felt a lot better, and even more eager to meet this mysterious "guru".

"Yes." She sighed. "He will. And I will, too, Lorcan, of course I will."

He smiled at her, and to Grace, just for that moment, everything seemed right in the world. Very very right.

But then her eye caught sight of something on the horizon, and in a split second, everything seemed very, _very_ _wrong_.


	2. The Fear

"Lorcan!" Grace cried, squinting at the horizon while a horrible gut-flipping feeling welled up inside her, a feeling that she had grown well accustomed to in the past months. "What's that??"

He clutched her arm. "What?"

She had forgotten he couldn't see for a moment in her horror. "I...don't know! A light, a fire, on the horizon! I think a ship might be alight!"

"Calm down, Grace. I'll go to the Captain." he told her matter-of-factly.

She breathed, and then said, "Fine. I just... they could be in trouble."

And Lorcan hurried away across the deck in the direction of the captain's cabin, his feet echoing against the deck, getting quieter and quieter as he got further away.

Now the alarming light was getting closer, at a fast rate, and Grace squinted. Yes: definitely a ship, being consumed by unforgiving flames. It deeply saddened her to see a ship die in this way, if you could call it "dying".

It reminded her of the ship which her brother had burned from T_he Diablo_, even though she hadn't actually seen the spectacle. But then, the captain was very good at describing things.

As it neared, a sort of fear joined the gut-flipping feeling in her stomach, as if the ship was sending out the emotion ahead of it, to prepare her for the worst. A prickle crept up her back, and she shivered.

Then something hard and real touched her back, and she shrieked in surprise and terror and jumped into the air what must have been a couple of feet. She whipped around, her heart thudding fast, only to see Darcy Flotsam standing behind her looking confused and somewhat concerned.

"Wotcha, Grace." She said. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that!"

"That's OK." Grace replied, only just recovering from the shock. "I'm just... I was feeling a little weird and jumpy."

"That there ship sure does send shivers down my back." Darcy nodded to the burning ship which was no longer on the horizon, but now only roughly a mile from T_he Nocturne_. "I saw Lorcan entering the captain's cabin, I guess he's gone to tell?"

"Yeah." Said Grace. "Isn't it weird? I would have thought that a burning ship wouldn't be able to move so fast."

The ship was getting bigger and bigger as it neared them.

Then Darcy cocked her head. "There's something wrong." She said.

"Well, I kind of guessed that, I-"

"No. I mean something strange and... do you believe in ghosts, Grace?" The question came as a surprise from the blue.

"What?" Grace almost laughed. "Of course not!"

"I do." Darcy replied, still serious.

Grace got the impression that she was about to say something else, but their conversation came to an abrupt close when Grace heard the icy whisper of the captain from the confines of her mind.

"Grace, Darcy, come back here. Away from the edge of the ship."

"Why?" Grace wanted to know. But she carried out the order anyway, along with Darcy.

The captain didn't answer her. However, she did hear the pattering of many feet below deck, shortly followed by lots of vampirates swarming out onto deck, as if, Grace thought, getting ready for a battle.....

"What's the captain thinking?" Grace asked Lorcan who stood next to her, a worried look on his face. Well, the part of his face that wasn't covered by white bandage.

"He doesn't think that that is merely a burning ship." Lorcan replied, frowning, but would say no more.

There was a strange silence which had fallen over the crew of _the Nocturne_, and all the vampires just stood still, as if turned to stone. But it was far from tedious, because Grace could almost feel the tension and anticipation in the air.

Now that she looked and thought more, it did seem funny that the burning ship was making a beeline for them. She pressed herself into Lorcan's side, as if it were a safe refuge from the ship which brought the strange feeling of fear with it.

Then Grace's insides jolted and her head span with half excitement, half puzzlement when the ship came close enough for her to see it properly. It was transparent! Even the fire. She could see the blue from behind it, and all the stars which she had been describing to Lorcan only minutes ago.

Suddenly all Darcy had said about ghosts came into significance. There couldn't be another mythical ship, could there? The Ghost-pirate ship, perhaps? Didn't have the same ring to it as Vampirates, but still.

The rest went by in a blur. The noise of the ship as it came so close that it bumped against the side of _The Nocturne_, sort of like the wind on the side of the ship rather than another solid thing, the wicked looking-flames which were sort of... _fixed _in place, and never spread, and the three metal grilles which were thrown down form the other ship, so that the crew of the ghost ship could venture onto the vampirate ship.

Grace wasn't normally the one to panic, but now she did, inwardly. The sense of foreboding which this ship brought with it was just too strong. She felt Lorcan squeeze her arm reassuringly, before stepping forward with the captain to meet these strange newcomers.

_No!_ She wanted to cry. _Don't go near them!_ But she couldn't seem to get the words out. She looked to Darcy on her other side, and she too had a look of panicked -fear on her quirky features.

They could sense something which the others could not.

As the first figure from the other ship came into her sight, Grace wanted to scream, for ever and ever, until the memory which had immediately etched itself into her mind disappeared.


	3. Porfirio Wrathe

The man, or rather, _ghost_, as Grace told herself, was almost too grotesque to look at.

But she couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from the bulky man, his grey, transparent face drenched in blood which must have been richly red once but was now light pink due to the transparency. His features were arranged into a horrible sneer, and his hair, which Grace would have imagined was once long and glossy, hung in sopping wet rat-tails down to his shoulders.

His clothes, once grand, were also drenched in blood, and torn away at his chest, where Grace could see an ugly gash, beginning to go green at the edges.

But most of all, he stank. Of death and corpses and all of the most awful smells in the world.

Grace screwed up her nose and would have covered her face, but then she realised that that could provoke him. If he even saw her, that is. Which was unlikely, because she was behind a lot of vampirates who were standing in front of her like a protective shield.

All the other ghosts that came gliding over the metal grilles to reach _the Nocturne_ were equally disgusting, although they didn't seem to have that air about them which sent shivers down your spine and made your mind scream out in protest.

Grace and Darcy clutched each other's hands with fear as the burly leader ghost thudded slowly toward the captain, who was standing, composed, in front of all the vampirates. Well, the ghost probably would have thudded, if he were made of solid matter. Instead he just sort of brushed, making an eery sound.

It was almost strange, feeling threatened by someone who you could see through. Who, Grace hoped, would just pass straight through you if they tried to attack. But it was like a fear of harmless spiders: They are creepy, even though they're harmless.

All of the other ghosts, dressed in pirate clothes and all with the same wounds – a gash on their chest's just below their necks – were gathering behind their leader fast, as if they were an army waiting to attack. But they were transparent. Any weapons they had would surely pass straight through anyone without doing damage- right?

Once all the ghosts were assembled and there was no more movement, the captain spoke, calm as ever. "Who are you? What business do you have here?" He directed his words at the ghost at the front – the worst one whom Grace had noticed first.

The ghost's voice was cracked. Rusty and slimy, old and brimming with torment. "I am... I was... Captain Porfirio Wrathe." He smiled evilly, as if waiting for this to sink in.

Grace gasped. She couldn't help herself. Porfirio Wrathe? It made sense, she supposed. He was dead, after all. Killed by vampires, Sidorio himself, on the very burning ship that stood behind him, outlining his figure with angry flames. Could he have come back for revenge?

The anger in his voice when he next spoke told her that yes. He was coming back for revenge. "You. You are vampires." He paused, almost as if he couldn't get the words out for anger. "Your kind killed us! My whole crew! Everyone dead!"

The ghosts behind him sneered and snarled in agreement. Overall it was a very menacing sound, and Grace's eyes widened in fear and her heart started beating more rapidly, as if it wanted to escape from her body and go to hide.

The captain waited for the angry noises to die down, then raised his hands. "And you have every right to be angry." He answered. "But we go by different rules. We would never have killed any one of you-"

But his peaceful words were drowned out by Porfirio Wrathe's awful, slimy, cracked voice. "But you _are_ of the same kind that killed us like monsters!" He shouted.

"We are not." The captain's voice got a tone louder. "I believe the vampires who killed you were outcast from this ship some time ago."

Whatever effect the captain had hoped this statement might have on the terrible ghost leader didn't take effect. Instead, Porfirio's eyes became even more wild with anger.

"If you had not abandoned them from this ship they would never have come near us!"

The implications of his words were clear, and Grace couldn't bear it. However calm and composed the captain seemed, Grace couldn't bear hearing him argue on his own, being shouted down like this. She had to do something!

"Therefore we seek revenge!" Wrathe hissed, joined by angry murmurs from his dead crew. "We would kill you all-" here he paused, letting that sink in, "-But I decided that there was a better option." He grinned evilly. "We seek entire control of the ship-"

But before he could complete his sentence, Grace acted "No!" She cried, acting on impulse. The second the word came from her, she regretted it deeply.

Everyone turned to look at her. Oh god.

But she couldn't back out now she'd already put her foot in it. She pushed her way to the front bravely, so that she was a few yards away from Wrathe. The stench was awful.

"You don't understand." She continued, trying to keep her voice from shaking. "We were as angry at those vampires as you are, but then your two brothers, Molucco and Barbarro," She hoped that these names, the names of hopefully two of the closest people to him, would make a difference, "They took revenge, which is why your ship is on fire: they burned the people who did this to you! You don't need to take revenge on us: we are on your side!"

There was a silence after this and Grace hoped that her words were taking effect, but then Porfirio spoke, as if she hadn't even said anything.

"And there is something else I want, too." He sneered, and Grace could now tell that he had long since lost all of his humanity. Mention of his brothers hadn't helped at all. "Ghosts need to draw upon human energy to stay alive. Like you have your blood donors, we need our energy donors. Of course they only last for a little while: the drainage leaves them half-dead."

Grace gulped as his eyes bored into her.

He pointed a long, wet, transparent arm right at Grace. "And I want _her_."


	4. Just one hour

The air seemed to have frozen, and Grace's heart thudded so loud in the sudden silence that she was afraid it would tempt some of the more hungry vampires.

But that was the least of her problems.

Porfirio Wrathe -or what was left of him- stood there, an evil leer on his grotesque features, looking pleased with the panicked silence he had created.

_He wanted control of the ship._

_And he wanted HER._

Awful images flooded into Grace's head, bringing with them a chilling fear: her, weak, almost dead, crawling along the deck of _The Nocturne_ by Porfirio's side, witnessing the vampirates slaving away day and night for the ghosts, slowly weakening with no blood to drink. - All the donors would have been allocated instead to the ghosts, their energy rather than their blood being drained from them mercilessly. Porfirio would lead attacks onto land, to steal away innocent humans and use them as donors, too. And the ghosts would lie back and enjoy eternity.

"No." The captain's voice awoke her. "You have nothing to bargain with. You are ghosts: you cannot kill us. What would you do to us if we disobeyed you?" He was challenging Wrathe.

This was a very good point, and Grace felt slightly relieved for a moment. Although it was hard to feel any good emotions in the presence of these awful monsters.

But Porfirio began to chuckle. "You do not yet know the full extent of our power, I'm afraid." He said in a slightly mocking voice. "You see, if you fail to hand over this girl, and control of your ship, to me, well, let's just say that I have a friend who is willing to wipe all of you vampires out of the picture for me. -And what a shame that would be: you all would have been so useful for the back-breaking work of-"

"What friend?" The captain interjected.

Porfirio smiled, very smug. "This friend." he told them, and the huge head of a classic, ugly, extremely dangerous sea-monster loomed up over the side of the ship. It was green, scaly, and its huge yellow teeth glistened, looking alarmingly able to tear anyone to shreds in a second. Grace, underneath her terror, was wondering exactly how Wrathe had gotten control of this amazing creature.

All of the vampires were astonished, and Grace swore a few of their eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"Sea-monsters actually _exist_??" Grace whispered to Darcy, who had slowly made her way through the crowd to stand by her.

Darcy's mouth was almost hanging agape in surprise. "Now they do." She replied. Then she added, in an undertone, "Well, this is all quite exciting- Um, apart from the bit where they're going to drain all your energy, and-"

"Yes, I know." Grace cut her off. There were more pressing matters at hand than Darcy's gabble. Like the fact that there was a huge, terrifying sea-monster that was going to tear them all up if they didn't do as Wrathe said.

No one's eyes had left the monster, and the menacing, pits of red it had for eyes were staring right back at them, as if sizing them all up.

"Give us some time." The captain said, still calm as the ocean on a summer's day. Unbelievably.

"Time?" Porfirio snarled back.

Now the captain's tone was almost pleading. "We can find some other payment instead of Grace. Instead of the ship."

Porfirio seemed to contemplate this, obviously enjoying the fact that he was in control of everything. He ghosts behind him seemed to mutter to each other, just a phantom, breezy whisper to Grace's ears.

_Please,_ she thought. _Please give us time._

"Alright. Agreed. One hour, to find something better, while we wait on our ship. -And don't even _think_ of trying to set sail and run away: my ship is firmly bonded to yours, for now."

A huge wave of relief washed over Grace, cool water would when you're hot and sticky, and she let out a breath which she hadn't even realized she'd been holding in.

A huge splash sounded from beside _The Nocturne_, and Grace jerked around, to see an empty space where the sea-monster had just been.

But it was still there. Waiting.

Now, Porfirio sneered one last time at all the vampires and Grace, for luck, the captain turned to his crew.

"Any ideas?" He inquired, and Grace could imagine that beneath the mask he was wearing an expression of defeat.

Grace couldn't believe that the captain had no plan. He _always_ had a plan: he was a strong, dependable figure. But now he was just as helpless and out of ideas as everyone else.

But then Lorcan spoke up.

"Well," He said, "If it comes to it we could all just search the ship for anything of immense value. -I know there are parts of the ship which even the captain isn't familiar with." Then he shrugged. "It's just a suggestion, but it may be all we have."

The captain seemed slightly mopre hopeful now. "Yes." He said. "Lietenant Furey, I think you have come up with the best suggestion."

The _only_ suggestion, thought Grace.

So, with heavy weights of responsibility on their shoulders, of they scampered in twos and threes to search their own ship top to bottom.

Forty minutes later, everyone was getting frantic. Where to look?

Darcy, unlike her usual perky self, was frowning away in the corner of the store room they had discovered at the bottom of the ship, lines of worry etched into her pretty features. She kept glancing up at Grace, as if to check she was still there.

Lorcan was also sitting, unable to search because of his blindness, but trying to support Grace and Darcy all the same.

"Come on, are you absolutely sure you've checked everywhere?" He asked, his voice almost drowned out by the clattering of many rusty old pieces of cutlery, books, and pots falling to the creaky floor from a box Grace had tipped up-side down.

She "mmm"-ed, in relpy to Lorcan.

She had infact managed to search the whole room once already, and was now looking round again, in case she'd missed anything of value.

Grace, despite the desperate situation, and the dread of what would happen if nobody found anything, was quite proud of her achievement: under normal circumstances, it would have taken her days to search through this lot.

The room reminded her of a junk yard crossed with a garage: piles of old heirlooms, resembling large mole-hills, boxes stacked in corners and on dusty shelves, a couple of up-turned chairs and a table........ but nothing worth giving to the evil ghost Porfirio.

"Darcy, why don't you search through this lot?" Grace suggested, her voice sounding strangely calm in contrast to the flood of grey doom which had invaded her mind. "I'm going to double check with the captain, that he knows of no more stare-rooms on the ship."

Darcy nodded slowly, then rushed over to the pile of things suddenly. She was obviously nervous, for Grace more than anything. As grace slipped out of the room, Darcy began searching in case, buried in the mess, there was a very unlikely priceless diamond that was worth more than the whole ship they were standing on.

When Grace got out into the corridoor, she began shuddering, on the verge of tears. She had managed to keep from crying in front of Darcy and Lorcan, but now it was too much. Now, she had only fifteen minutes to find something that would save both hers, and ultimately, the whole crew's lives.

She leaned against the wall for support, a few tears managing to escape from her eyes. Out of all the situations she had been in, this had to be one of the most impossible.

As she stood there sobbing, a soft male voice sounded behind her.

"What's the matter?"

Grace turned around, curious to see who had spoken. The figure was blurred through her tears, so she wiped her eyes with her sleeve, to see a boy of no more than nineteen. He had a friendly face which was now showing an expression of concern, and thick brown hair which was poking out in all directions.

His question seemed quite funny to Grace. All theough the confrontation on deck, the donors had been sleeping peacefully. They hadn't a clue.

Instead of answering his question, Grace asked, "Who are you?"

"My name's Edward." he said, and grinned. "Why are you crying? I could help."

Grace decided that she could trust him, so she sighed, and explained in the least amount of words possible about Porfirio wanting revenge, and haviong to find something to repay him.

Edward frowned. "Seriously? And I slept through all this?" He looked miffed.

That almost brought a smile to Grace's face. "Yes, I think you did." She replied.

"And I also think I may have a solution, for all our sakes." Now he grinned very wide, and bent forward to whisper in her ear.

Grace legged it along the corridor, back to the storeroom she had originally come out of, her meeting with the captain completely forgotten. Her head was consumed with a new hope.

She came to an abrupt stop at a huge, wooden door which she hadn't noticed before, as instructed, and looked frantically around for the mark on the wall.... there! She leant forward and pushed it down, wishing and wishing than Edward had been right.

Darcy looked at her in surprise, and Lorcan was just... surprised, because he couldn't look.

"What's got your knickers in a twist?" She asked.

"This!" Exclaimed Grace, as the wooden door swung open with a creak.

As the cloud of dust cleared, Grace gasped. She couldn't believe her eyes.

**So, this chapter was quite long. Longer than all the others, anyway. Hope you liked it! By the way Edward is Darcy's donor…… I think.**

**Next chapter should be on here soon!**

**For now, reviews are greatly appreciated. (hint hint)**


	5. Treasure

Behind the plain door with its rusting old hinges, was piled dozens and _dozens_ of sparkling white-silver diamonds, which reflected light from the room into Grace's eyes, making her blink, both in amazement and because they would dazzle her if she gazed at them for too long.

Darcy was by her shoulder in an instant. "Grace..." She breathed. "How on Earth did you know where to find _these_?"

But Grace was quite at a loss for words. They were so beautiful. Each one seemed to have a pool of shimmering rainbow light playing around in its center, and all of them stacked up on top of each other made Grace feel both happy and sad at once. "Edward told me." She answered after a pause.

Grace could hear Lorcan's footfalls behind them, and she was overcome with disappointment that Lorcan would not be able to see the amazing horde.

Then a thought came to mind. Who owned these? Was it the captain? -He wouldn't just keep these amazing things cooped up in here, would he? Or maybe it belonged to a member of the crew, and they had hidden them away here, fearful of the captain finding out? Either way, Grace suddenly snapped out of her trance.

"Porfirio!" She cried. "Time! How much timed have we got left?"

Darcy quickly shot a look up at a dusty grandfather clock in the corner of the room, which was, surprisingly, still in working order. "Eeek!" She squealed in alarm. "It's been an hour! We should have been up there twenty minutes ago!"

**OK, OK. Not the best cliff hanger in the world. -And I know that this chapter was incredibly short. Woah: looking back it's hardly even a paragraph. But never mind. I just wanted to give the diamonds a chapter all to themselves. Please review!**


	6. Refusal

Grace, Darcy and Lorcan sped along the ship's corridor, Lorcan being led by hand. They were already twenty minutes late: What could Porfirio have done to the crew by now? Were they too late? Grace's head pounded with a thousand questions in a panicked whirl. She looked down at the old sack that she and Darcy had quickly grabbed from a corner and loaded about seven of the precious stones into, Grace scrabbling and dropping some, and Darcy handling each with the utmost care, as if they were living things. The bag looked very frail and stretched. Was that the beginnings of a tearing sound she could hear? Would the sack hold, or would it just drop all the diamonds everywhere, hindering them further? All three desperately loped on, hoping against hope that they would make it, before Porfirio lost his patience.

Grace didn't even know how they did it, but finally, they were on deck. But the sight that met their eyes didn't look particularly straightforward: to Grace's confusion, all of the vampires on deck were completely silent and almost still, apart from a few twitches. The ghosts were all back on _The Nocturne_, all now scattered among the vampirates, looking very proud and stuck-up. -Not to mention evil, obviously. But no one was making a sound. What was going on?

Then she heard it. A muffled, agonized groan. Lorcan, his hearing being sharper now that he had lost the use of his eyes, turned his head immediately toward the sound. It was one of the vampirates.

As Grace looked into her eyes, horror clasped at her heart, as she realised what was happening. The ghosts, with some unseen power, were torturing the vampires, holding them still against their will.

Luckily, despite their loud panting, Grace's small party had not yet been seen. The ghosts were all too indulged in the vampires who they were torturing.

"What now?" Darcy hissed at the other two.

Grace answered by doing what she hoped was the correct thing. "Hey!" She shouted. "We have..." All the ghosts turned to look at her, and Grace felt better just slightly when she realised that all the vampires relaxed at this, and took a few steps back from their captors. The ghosts had got distracted by her, and let their concentration break. "...We have your payment!"

Suddenly Porfirio was there, almost breathing down her neck. If he could breathe. But he couldn't, because he was dead. "Payment?"

This time Darcy spoke up. "Yes. They're very precious. - The ship's pride and joy, I'd say. Worth lots, and lot...." She broke off as she saw Porfirio's icy glare.

Lorcan, who was holding the sack, opened it up, to show Porfirio. Grace was on edge, incredibly nervous. What would he think of them?

Then Porfirio looked back up at the three. "You mean to tell me, that you have diamonds?" His tone was level, not giving anything away, but immediately Grace started doubting that they had done the right thing.

"Yes." She squeaked.

Then Porfirio rose a few feet into the air, his features contorting with anger and his form seeming to get bigger. Grace and Darcy quailed. "I asked for payment! PAYMENT!! What use is a few rocks to a ghost?" he bellowed, his awful voice made much, much worse by his rage. "HOW DARE YOU MOCK ME??!!" He roared.

"No, sir!" Darcy answered, which was very daring of her. "We thought... this was what you wanted..."

"A PERSON!! You fools! I WANTED A PERSON!! All I crave is the energy and power! Diamonds won't give me any of that! I NEED A PERSON!"

Oh, god. Grace couldn't quite believe that she had ever been in the presence of a more angry being.

"So now..." Porfirio's voice was still shaking with rage, but now it was quieter. "I will have to keep _my_ side of the bargain, and take you, girl...."

Grace shivered, and was about to say something, anything, to make him change his mind, when her limbs were overcome with the oddest sensation. It was like a very light pressure on her, pushing and pushing... But now she gasped, as it got stronger, before her gasp was cut abruptly off by the pressure seeming to get to her lungs. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't hear, or see or anything. There was just nothing, but a strange presence in her mind, holding the pressure in place, keeping her in the dark...

Darcy looked on in horror as she saw her friend's eyes go blank, her breathing cease. Darcy would have screamed, had Lorcan's hand not found its way to her arm in a comforting gesture, even though he was as revolted and angry at this act as she was. Even though he couldn't see, he had obviously sensed something.

"Let her go!" Darcy cried. "What ever you've done, let her go, you evil..."

"Grace!" Porfirio said, as if she had not even spoken, and in response, Grace, amazingly, hauled up the sack of diamonds, and with inhuman strength, started to swing it to and fro, to and fro, until it soared high into the air in an arc, heading for the edge of the ship. Porfirio was using Grace! He had taken her over with his strange, unknown, ghosty powers!

Darcy stared in horror at first her possessed friend, and then the sack plummeting nearer to the edge of the ship every second.

Everything went in slow motion then. She felt the need to protect the diamonds: they were _too_ precious to let fall over the edge! And she was lurching forward, her arms outstretched in a desperate attempt to save the sack of jewels. She could almost hear a "Noooooooooooo!" escape from her mouth, as she came close enough to catch... and the bag went soaring through her hands, plummeting down toward the water over the edge of the ship.

Darcy slammed into the ship's side, but, instead of falling back down, a terrible thing happened. She began toppling over the edge. Her mind was gripped with fear and her hands scrabbled at the edge of the boat: if she fell all the way down there would she survive the impact? And she wouldn't be up here to help Grace!

But, to her dismay, Darcy carried on falling, until she was slicing through the air, down, down, down...


	7. Darcy's Plan

As Darcy fell, she could only think of the water impact, and the great, bloodthirsty monster waiting somewhere below. Could even a vampire survive that beast? She really didn't want to find out, but it looked like she had no choice.

Darcy's hand flailed uselessly in the air, as if pointing upwards would somehow make her start going in the same direction. Then, out of the blue, just as she was watching her life flash before her eyes, another hand clutched hers, firmly. This was such a shock that Darcy nearly let go of it. Who was that?

She dared open her eyes, as she was pulled to an abrupt stop, her every muscle straining not to let go. She turned her eyes skywards, and saw, to her surprise and dismay, Lorcan; leaning as far over the boat as he could go without toppling over the edge, as she had done before him.

Even more to her surprise, a bright smile was lighting up his features.

"I did it!" he cried. "Not many blind men can say the same, can they?"

Darcy felt he needed reminding of the danger they were in. "Lorcan! Quick, pull me up!" She shouted, resolving to thank him later.

"Oh, right!" And then Darcy was being hauled up. If very slowly.

Lorcan was straining. It had been enough just hearing Darcy's cry and stumbling over to the edge of the boat where the sound had come from, then desperately flailing his hands around to catch her. But now this…. It was using up all his last reserves of stamina and more. With every inch he hauled Darcy back up, he could feel his strength leaving, and with it his hope.

With a one, very last burst of energy and adrenaline, he pulled Darcy up and over, onto the deck. It was OK. He had saved her. Now, he was just so tired. He felt himself begin to lose his balance…

As Darcy swung in a sort of arch over the side of the boat, and landed with a pronounced thud on deck, her hand broke away from Lorcan's. It took a moment for her to realise what was going on, but when she did, she stared in helpless horror at her saviour toppling over the side of the ship instead. It was as if the sea desperately wanted a victim, and in exchange for Darcy, it took the very person who had rescued her.

Coming to her senses, Darcy shrieked and leapt to her feet. There was nothing she could do: though Lorcan had saved her, she was out of all energy and just calling, "Lorcaaaaaan!" As he plummeted used up all the last of it.

There was a splash, and Darcy hoped with all her heart that the sea monster had neither heard nor felt it. It could rip him to shreds in seconds. Darcy shivered, and with a heavy heart, she turned her back to the edge of the ship, and silently vowed, _Lorcan, I'll be back for you._

The ship, Darcy realised as she took in her surroundings, was now actually very noisy, contrasting with the quiet of before: all the ghosts were whizzing around, lying down leisurely, and cackling, all in a big transparent swirl of dementedness. Some had managed to get the ale kegs open and were drinking from the steady flow of red liquid that streamed from them. Darcy wondered how ghosts could drink.

Then she cast her eyes over Grace and Porfirio, and immediately scowled. Grace was moving around robotically, obviously carrying out Porfirio's orders, will no free will. She was relieving the vampirates, one by one, of their weapons, while the vampirates stood their, letting her. They knew that the battle was lost.

Or, they _thought_ they knew.

Darcy crept over to a huddle of them. "You lot got crossbows?" She asked the circle urgently, pushing into it.

There were seven of them, four women and three men, a rough looking bunch, and Darcy remembered chatting to few of them in the past. In fact, she knew one quite well. His name was Pueblo.

"Yes, we all have crossbows." He answered. "Why?"

Darcy grinned, despite the situation, and explained to them her plan. Their faces brightened once she reached the end: she's thrown them a lifeline of hope. So, making sure that the looked inconspicuous, the cross-bowers and Darcy made their way across to the edge of the ship, looking for the telltale dark shape under the water, where a certain sea-monster would be…

Eliminate the threat, and Porfirio would have nothing to bargain with.


	8. Battle

Grace could see nothing. She could hear nothing. But she could feel the motion of her body, turning this way and that, reaching out for things… but it was not Grace who controlled this.

It was another consciousness; a slimy, cracked, heavy one. She could feel it creeping through her mind, attempting to take complete hold of her and turn her into a mindless drone…

But Grace was too strong for it.

Though her body was being controlled, as if she were a puppet, Grace was still conscious, could still think, even though it was a strain to do so. Right now, she was thinking for her life. – And Darcy's, and Lorcan's, and too many to name.

What could she do? Where was the answer? She wasn't going to give up, but she began to become angry and frustrated when she could come up with nothing.

Her hope was beginning to drain from her, when something echoed deep in her mind. At first she wasn't sure what it was, but then it sounded again, and she recognised the icy, yet friendly, whisper.

"Grace…fight him, look within his consciousness to find the answer…"

If she was controlling herself, Grace would have furrowed her brow, instead of just steadily reaching out once again to retrieve a hard object from a limp pair of hands.

The captain was always talking in riddles. How was she to look _inside_ the consciousness? This was crazy: it was enough that she had to defend her own mind, so how was she supposed to attack?

"Find the strength, Grace…." The captain's icy whisper again. "Who is he to take over your mind?" Grace couldn't help thinking that he sounded very clichéd.

But the captain's voice had helped, nevertheless. He was right: why _should_ she just dumbly succumb to Porfirio's power?

Now Grace was fully determined. With all her might, she found the force within her to push against the other consciousness, trying to break through. Relief was instant. He obviously hadn't counted on her fighting back, and the power trying to take her over shrank back, almost in surprise. Grace thought then that she could hear a distant voice; was it Darcy's? She was obviously getting some of her senses back. Filled with new hope, she pushed against the consciousness again, with an adrenaline rush, if a mental one. Then she felt a strange non-physical pain, as Porfirio's mind pushed back against hers.

It was an incredibly strange sensation, having a mental push and shove fight, without actually moving. It almost would have been amusing if the circumstances had been less dire. But they weren't, so Grace battled on, gaining the upper hand because of her sheer strength and determination.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the evil consciousness broke. It just, sort of... shattered and faded. But not before Grace had just enough time to glimpse a secret: the enemies' only weakness…. As she regained her sight and free-will, and saw all the vampirates standing around her looking defeated, she internally cackled.


	9. Sea Monster

They had found the place where the sea-monster was lying below the boat, and coaxed it out with a few arrows shot into the water. The arrows hadn't hurt it, but they were enough to make it curious and approach the surface. Now, it was raising its huge bulk so that it stood on the ocean bed and could see them. Darcy kept thinking that the head would stop raising now, that surely the monster couldn't be any taller than it already was, but it kept on raising, until its head was a fair twenty feet above them, its green scales glistening menacingly.

Darcy felt as if everyone was moving in slow motion: the archers, the sea monster looming terrifyingly over them from the water. She could hardly muster the momentum to cry, "Aim!" but she did eventually.

All of the archers aimed, their bows creaking slightly as they were pulled backwards.

Darcy shouted, "Fire!" and for a second, nothing happened, and she was afraid that she was somehow not there anymore. Could she have fainted and this all be a hallucination?

But then it happened. Seven arrows pinged from the bows, and soared through the air with a rush of wind, making Darcy feel very delicate in comparison. Four of the arrows hit the target, but then fell out, not being able to get a firm hold on the skin.

But it made the monster angry. It reared up even higher, raising its head in a feral roar. Darcy and the other vampirates quailed under the huge, cold shadow.

Then Darcy remembered herself. "Aim and fire!" She yelled, above the roar. They would penetrate this monster somehow.

The vampire's hands were shaky, and only two arrows hit the target now, and only one stayed lodged in place. This time the monster felt some pain, and Darcy smiled to herself discreetly: if they could injure it, maybe they could drive it away, and with it all Porfirio had to bargain with.

Darcy blinked, and in that moment, she felt the floor whoosh from beneath her feet and opened her eyes in surprise, trying not to cry out. She felt hard jaws clamping unforgivingly down on her body, and hot breath condensing on her back. The monster had hold of her in its mouth! And by god, it stank, really bad. She could see her vampire friends down on deck, standing there almost awkwardly, not knowing what to do. How were they supposed to save someone if they were in a monster's mouth, twenty feet above their heads?

Darcy noticed a piece of something stuck between one of the monster's back teeth. No doubt a piece of the last meal it had eaten, and Darcy squeamed to realise that it could have been a human. Ugh. It could be vampire next, she thought. And then an idea lit up her mind. "Pueblo!" She yelled urgently. Well, you couldn't blame her for being urgent. She was about to be eaten. "Chuck me your epee!"

"What?" His voice sounded very quiet from beneath her, like a squeaky grasshopper. Funny the similes you think of when your life is in danger.

"Chuck sword!" She screamed. "Now!"

This time he seemed to understand, and with a fluid movement, the epee shot upwards and Darcy caught it perfectly and grinned to herself. Even though she was inside a sea monster's mouth. Then she almost screamed, as the monster began to bite down on her, sharp teeth trying to penetrate her hard skin.

"No!" She cried, and lunged toward the roof of the creature's mouth, her own mouth now grimly set, but panic in her eyes.

Then she stopped. Did she really want to do this? Kill another creature? Then she realised that she didn't really have a choice, and lunged upwards anyway.

Darcy couldn't really remember much from the moments that followed that. She remembered a howling, growling, roar of rage and pain, and she remembered a falling sensation, and some arms catching her firmly, while the growl was still rattling on. _I have caused that roar,_ she thought, guiltily.

She opened her eyes to just catch sight of the sea monster retreating, thrashing its head around in not-so-nice-to-watch agony. Its teeth were falling from its mouth a clattering noisily onto deck, spraying splinters, and Darcy instinctively covered her eyes from them.

She felt on the verge of fainting, but she kept her eyes open, just. This was for the better, because if she hadn't, she wouldn't have heard the loud cry of pain, which was coming from the main deck.

**Hope you like this chapter. Its Darcy's moment of glory (tehe).**

**The next one will be back about Grace.**


	10. Two Turns of Events

Porfirio reeled backwards with a cry of pain, his arms flailing in the air, as if trying to grab grace's mind back. But Grace had come out of her entranced state, and didn't intend to return to it. She stood boldly, defiantly, in front of the vampirates who still had their weapons, a pleased but slightly devious grin on her face. It greatly amused her that no one else knew that she knew what she knew. If that makes any sense.

Porfirio stood back up straight, and some ghosts started paying attention, feeling that there was something interesting going on. Porfirio snarled. "Insolent little child! Do not block your mind from me!"

Grace continued blocking him. It felt as if there were a solid wall, hiding and defending her mind. She chuckled, and Porfirio got the impression that she knew something he did not know that she knew. (Yet again if that makes any sense)

"Leave this ship, right now." Grace said, and there was a silence, as if her words had bewitched everyone.

"Or what, girly?" But there was now an undertone of doubt in his voice now.

Grace felt very powerful, standing in front of all the vampirates. Now it was as if the situation had changed round completely: she was now the one who's figure was framed by the flaming, ghostly ship. Grace hoped that she looked clever and menacing, and to add to the effect, she smiled knowingly. "Or..." She drew out her sentence. "We will shoot you were it hurts!" Then she frowned, realizing that her words could have had the wrong effect. She certainly noticed some of the ghosts sniggering.

"I don't mean where you _think_ I mean!" She hastily added, trying not to feel embarrassed. "I mean, I know how to kill a ghost. Shoot him in the place where his heart used to be- it's where most of the energy in their body's collect. Shoot there and the energy scatters- the ghosts are destroyed!" She grinned triumphantly. If only Lorcan could have seen this. Where was he, anyway?

Porfirio frowned. A frown of fear.- But then he remembered something. "Silly girl! Try anything, and my sea-monster rips you all up! So you'll die either way. Lose-lose situation." He reached out for her, and Grace cursed. "Now stop shielding your mind, or I'll have to summon my monster! There's no point any more, girl!"

***

Darcy jumped to her feet. Where had that cry come from? A cry of fear, and pain. And she could swear it had been the rusty voice of the ghost Porfirio. Darcy quickly dipped down and snatched up her fallen crossbow.

"Stay here, Paolo!" She told her friend, as she sprinted to see what was going on the other side of the ship. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, and as she reached the opposite end of the ship she saw Grace standing confidently in front of a large group of vampirates, all armed.

Darcy decided not to make her presence known: Grace seemed to be handling this just fine by herself.

"I mean I know how to kill a ghost." Darcy heard Grace say. Was she bluffing? Darcy couldn't believe it. "Shoot him in the place where his heart used to be..."

Darcy heard the conversation unfold, a curious look on her face.

"Silly girl!" Porfirio said. "Try anything, and my sea-monster rips you all up! So you'll die either way. Lose-lose situation. Now stop shielding your mind, or I'll have to summon my monster! There's no point any more, girl!"

Darcy smiled, almost delighted that there was such a suitable place for her announce her presence. "What sea monster?" She shouted, walking boldly into the scene.

Everyone blanched, and after an initial moment of shock, Grace cried, "Darcy!" A pretty obvious thing to say.

"Yep." Darcy replied. "I'm so glad you're alright, Grace! I was so worried." She was going to hug her, but then decided that it would be more appropriate to do so later. "Anyway!" She walked up to Porfirio, boldly, a defiant frown on her face. "Mr. Porfirio, I'm afraid you have been a very bad boy, and I had to half-kill your poor sea monster!"

Porfirio was dumb-struck. "_What??_"

"That's right!" Darcy pointed over to behind Porfirio, into the distance, and he whirled around to look. There was a figure retreating into the distance. "There he is! Or she! Just managing to get away, bless him!" She grinned. "So now what do you have to bargain with, Mr, hmm?" Darcy twirled round to face all the other ghosts, as if she was a primary-school-teacher telling off some naughty pupils.

All the ghosts but Porfirio knew that they had lost. They knew when was enough, when to stop. They began moodily muttering and floating back to the flaming ship.

Porfirio ignored them, his face clouded with thunder, and he rose into the air, silently, saying nothing. There was a moment of silence.

"Well, Porfirio?" Grace said. "All your crew seems to be leaving. Face it! We've beaten you!"

"No." The word was laced with menace and storminess, and seemed to come from the very depths of Porfirio's being.

Darcy and grace took a few steps back, sensing something wrong, and all the ghosts who had filed reluctantly back onto the ship turned around to watch.

"No." Porfirio whispered again. "I will not leave. I must have my revenge!" The words got louder and louder as he said them, in a crescendo.

And then, unbelievably, he darted forward, gathering all of his power into one hand with mighty, angry, ghostly power, to make it almost solid, and grabbed Darcy's crossbow from her surprised hands.

"But ghosts can't hold things!" Grace cried, awestruck.

Porfirio didn't answer. He just swung the crossbow in her direction. He was shaking: obviously keeping lots of energy in his hands was a great strain. "Submit to my power!" he boomed. "Or I kill you all myself!"

"Why do all the evil baddies always end up wanting to kill us?" Darcy whispered into Grace's ear.

Grace shrugged, then remembered where they were, and suddenly became very worried.

Holding the crossbow was seeming to become easier and easier for Porfirio. His expression was becoming less and less strained, and so he smiled evilly to make up for the lack of interesting expression.

"Now, which one of you first?" he crooned, darting forward again and using the other hand to reel Grace and Darcy in. Obviously some insane power was enabling him to become solid. He pressed himself to the edge of the ship, to that there was something solid behind him. No chance of attack from there. There was only his own crew, mesmerized by this turn of events.

None of the vampirates where able to aim at Porfirio: he was holding the two girls too close to his chest: there was a very high risk of hitting them unless they could get closer. But then he'd kill them. Lose-lose.

And where was the captain? Grace saw him lying on the deck unconscious, and quickly turned away.

There was nothing that they could do to stop him, Grace thought despairingly, as Porfirio pulled her closer against his somehow now solid, but still transparent, bulk. There was no one left who could help.

But then grace realised with unexplainable relief that she was wrong. There _was_ someone!

"Lorcan!" She cried, as she saw him flash, in the blink of and eye, over the side of the ship, and in one fluid movement, stab his sharp blade into Porfirio's chest.


	11. Fire on the Horizon

Grace gasped. How had Lorcan done it? He was _blind!_ But before she had time to think anything else, Porfirio interrupted with a squeak. A very high pitched squeak, which got lower and lower until he was humming int a bass tone. Everyone looked on in confusedness, except Lorcan, who of course couldn't look. He _listened_ in confusedness instead.

When Porfirio's eery humming reached so low a note that it became impossible for Grace's ears to hear, there was a huge flash of light, and Porfirio burst into a million tiny sparkling pieces, which floated off on the wind.

"What happened?" Lorcan asked, shakily.

"You got him, Lorcan!" Grace cried running to him and throwing herself into his arms. "You killed him!"

"I did?" He seemed slightly bemused.

"Yes!" Darcy cried, and ran to him too. "Move up," she muttered to Grace, playfully, and they both hugged Lorcan tight.

The vampirate crew, and the ghost crew watched, expressions ranging from joyful to confused to angry. The angry was mostly the ghosts, who were all sort of standing there, defeated and deflated.

"How will we get our energy now?" One muttered.

Grace turned to them and said, "Oh yes, that's another thing I found out!" She grinned. She loved being the one who knew it all. "The energy from the now disintegrated Porfirio has been drawn back to his home: his ship. It will keep you all going for over a hundred years to come. I know, amazing, isn't it?"

Darcy winked. "Now, are you going to leave peacefully, or will we have to kill you all?"

Some of the more wimpish ghosts shivered, but then, in silence, they all began to un-hitch the ships, and sail away.

Darcy and Grace moved back, leading Lorcan with them, as all the vampirates began talking animatedley, and moving off inside the ship, as, miraculously, the captain coughed a couple of times, and jerked up.

"What happened?" But his question was answered by the sight of the fast retreating ship, fiery and filled with ghosts. The captain stood and walked over to the three, and Grace imagined that beneath his mask he was smiling.

Before long, all the four watchers could see was a small shape in the distance, in the darkness. Just a fire on the horizon. Who knows where the ghost ship would venture to now? It would always be there, roaming the seas, and maybe there would be a legend, and perhaps a shanty, about them, too...

"Lorcan," Grace asked. "How on earth _did_ you kill Porfirio, anyway?"

He put his arm around her, knowing that she was on his right side, and he frowned. "I just.... I just knew where to go."

Darcy and Grace were confused.

"I heard your voice, Grace, telling everyone about how to kill Porfirio. I was down in the water below. Believe it or not, I grabbed onto something hard and scaly which pulled me to the surface when I fell in-"

"Good old Sea Monster. I actually feel really bad about making all its teeth fall out now." Darcy put in.

"Aye. That must have been the sea monster." Lorcan said. "Anyway, then I heard all the fuss about Porfirio having won, I was ... _drawn_ to the correct spot. I knew that's where I had to go and stab. After I'd done it, that feeling went away." He grinned sheepishly, and added, "Ta-da."

"It must have been Porfirio's angry force pulling you there." Grace told them. "If it was strong enough to make him solid, it would be strong enough to pull you toward him."

"Quite the little expert on ghosts, now, aren't you?" Darcy said, and Lorcan chuckled, as they moved off inside: the sky was just turning slightly pink with the rising sun.

"Well, it _does_ help having been inside one's mind." Grace told her, and they all laughed.


	12. Epilogue

Grace and Lorcan were once again on deck, and Grace was looking at the stars.

"Thank you." Grace said, taking Lorcan by surprise. It had been a whole day since the Ghost-pirate misadventure.

"What for?" he asked.

"Just.... sort of... everything. We would have been doomed without you." She smiled up at him, and though he could not see her, he smiled back.

"Oi!" A familiar voice called. "You two!" Darcy came running toward them, and stopped when she reached them, grinning, slightly manically.

"I can't stop thinking about yesterday. That was an episode and half, wasn't it?" She said.

"Yeah." Grace grinned. "You know what? Forget _vampirates._ The ghost pirates have hit the ocean!" Grace and Darcy giggled, and Lorcan smiled in exasperation at the pair.

Just then a head appeared over the side of the ship, and Pueblo, Darcy's friend, climbed over. "Hey!" He said, excited. "Look what I found!"

And he held up a diamond, sparkling with a million different colours.

"You found one of the diamonds!" Darcy cried, flinging herself at him. After she had fallen over the side of _The Nocturne_ for a bag of those, it made her very enthusiastic to see one again. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"It's yours?" he asked, holding it out.

Darcy took it, and peered at Grace. "Maybe." She said, and ran off with it.

"Hey!" Grace exclaimed, and bolted after her. "Mine!"

Lorcan and Pueblo burst into laughter as they watched the two girls chasing each other for the shiny new toy.

"I think that yesterday was a job well done." Lorcan commented.

"So do I." Agreed Pueblo. "So do I."

**The End**

**Please don't hit me because of the cheesy ending. I hope you enjoyed the story and that they did find _one_ diamond at the end. I really wanted to tie up that loose end. **

**Does any one want me to do a sequel, or do you think that would be too much?**

**Thanks for reading! **


	13. An Author's Note

**Hey guys! I just read back my own story, and I miss the good old writing vampirates days. **

**But a sequel may not be an option, because I just don't know if I would be motivated enough.**

**I'm at the mo quite busy (fanfiction wise) with an Inkheart parallel universe kinda story called Meggie, Torn Between two Lovers (my bit of advertising for the day). But I'm almost done with that, and then I really want to write a Merlin/ Doctor Who story.**

**And if you don't know what Merlin or Doctor Who are, you have not lived. Watch them on youtube or something- or buy the DVDs. Just do it. Kay?**

**OK, so here's the message which I really added this whole Author's note for: **

**Vampirates book 5, Empire of the Night, is out! It came out last Thursday (the 4th March) and can't believe I didn't know before now! I am such a bad fan!**

**So I'm gonna go buy it. Thank you, if you read this. You are a very loyal person. xxx**


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